Where is Jack Ma?
Seriously...
BBC
4.1 • 885 Ratings
🗓️ 13 April 2021
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On the eve of what would have been the world's largest share listing, Ant Financial, estimated to float for over $300bn, it's founder Jack Ma, the Chinese billionaire mysteriously disappeared. Things started to go wrong for Ma after he told a room full of banking regulators that their methods were out of date and not fit for purpose. Shortly afterwards, the Chinese government cancelled the listing and Jack went silent. The extroverted charismatic billionaire, who once flourished in the public eye, simply did not show up at key events.
It's happening more and more often in China: some of the country's most famous and powerful people are disappearing after coming into conflict with the Communist Party. China's most famous actress, the Chinese head of the international police agency Interpol and even a top news presenter all disappeared.
So what's happened to Jack Ma? In this program journalist Celia Hatton, who spent 15 years living and reporting in China, investigates. Celia asks if Ma is just keeping a low profile or is something more sinister at play? What does Jack Ma’s disappearance tell us about China's relationship with big business, the future direction of its economy and its attitude towards the growing number of domestic tech billionaires?
Producer: Rajeev Gupta
(Clips used: CBS, CNN, World Economic Forum, Alibaba Group, Financial Times)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This was an impregnable fortress. The only way you get out was in a wooden box. |
| 0:05.0 | The controversial maximum security prison impossible to escape from. |
| 0:09.0 | And one of the duties of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.0 | The IRA inmates who found a way. of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.5 | The IRA inmates who found a way. |
| 0:14.5 | I'm Carlo Gableer and I'll be navigating a path |
| 0:19.5 | through the disturbing inside story of the biggest jailbreak in British and Irish history. |
| 0:25.0 | The narrative that they want is that this is a big achievement by them. |
| 0:28.5 | Escape from the maze, listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:35.0 | BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:39.0 | Hello, this is seriously from BBC Radio 4, I'm your host Vanessa Casule. |
| 0:45.8 | This podcast brings you an incredible selection of documentaries about everything you could |
| 0:50.4 | imagine and some things you couldn't. Next up something captivating, enlightening, and seriously good. |
| 0:58.0 | It's a gorgeous sunny day in London and the sheik so-ho neighborhood the perfect spot for a little thought |
| 1:06.8 | experiment I'm just outside Facebook's UK headquarters last year this company pulled an 86 billion dollars in revenue. |
| 1:15.0 | And of course Facebook has a famous founder, Mark Zuckerberg. |
| 1:19.0 | So let's imagine that one day Mark Zuckerberg gives a controversial speech at a major business event and then simply vanishes from the public eye. |
| 1:28.0 | All his engagements cancelled, silence for months. |
| 1:31.0 | Well, that's what happened in China last year. The country's |
| 1:35.1 | richest man, the founder of tech giants worth even more than Facebook, abruptly |
| 1:39.8 | dropped out of the spotlight. This is the story of Jack Ma. And what's happened to him? |
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